424 



THE CENTURY, 



understood anything about steam ! But as the &quot; Cen 

 tury&quot; was written to remind himself, and not to inform 

 others of the modus operand^ it was sufficient for his 

 purpose to particularise only the results. We can 

 usually distinguish where he treads a beaten track, 

 the result of reading, and where his course deviates 

 into his &quot; fire-water-work&quot; experiments. The former 

 generally has its parallel in some old author ; but when 

 the same rule is attempted to be applied to measure the 

 others, we find we are dealing either with a new order 

 of things, or else with sheer paradoxes of the most 

 chimerical character. While, on the other hand, follow 

 him in his own new track of experimental research, and 

 we are rewarded at every step with a full and clear 

 exposition of the wonderfully ingenious processes of 

 inquiry by which he attained the perfection ascribed 

 by him to his u Water-commanding Engine.&quot; 



In the present article it is required that a weight 

 shall take up double its own weight, not by the old 

 rule of leverage, but u at the self-same distance from the 

 centre. 7 In the subjoined diagram 

 we have two cylinders C, B, con 

 nected at the lower end with a steam 

 pipe, supplied with the steam-cock 

 A. A cord passing over the drum 

 wheel D, is connected at its ends 

 with the pistons B, C; and the 

 whole stands in a trough E. 

 Steam having been admitted to B, 



and then cut off, condensation has 



ensued, the piston B has descended 

 and C has been raised, and along 

 with it a quantity of water. Here we may take the two 

 pistons as representing u one hundred pound&quot; each, and 

 although they balance, yet we thus find &quot; how to make 



